Whisper Something Fragile
by DearSweetPapercut
Summary: "The last nine hours seemed to disappear and reappear in her mind like clips from a movie she had seen years ago and could barely remember."  It's up to the the team to piece together what happened to Sara.  Eventually Sandle
1. Chapter 1

The idea for this fic has been gathering dust for a while, but I was never sure of it. I thought I'd give it a go and try to write it, hope you all like it, please review let me know if you think I should continue :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Whisper Something Fragile: Chapter One**

The door came crashing down as LVPD trickled into the hotel room. She lay in the centre of the chaos completely at peace, the juxtaposition of the situation illuminated by the harsh morning light that flooded through the windows.

The armed officers stood awkwardly having lowered their guns waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Detective Vartann finally made a slow move towards the woman that lay face down on the round bed that seemed to be the centre piece of the room. Gently he pushed the dark hair out of the way so he could check for a pulse, it was then that he realised who it was; Sara Sidle.

Her pale skin was ice cold to the touch but he could feel a faint pulse. As he slowly peeled the covers away Sara's back became exposed to his worried eyes; bruises and scratch marks covered like paint on a canvas.

Detective Vega had already disappeared into the hallway to make the 911 call for an ambulance. There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach causing him to grit his teeth. There was something about seeing one of their own like that made them feel as if whatever work they were doing wasn't enough.

Vartann soon noticed that the clothes Sara was wearing was ripped almost to shreds revealing the lacy black lingerie she wore underneath. What would have been natural embarrassment of seeing a colleague's underwear was replaced by fear of what may have happened to her.

"Sara...Sara can you hear me." He spoke in the hope that she's not too far gone. A slight stir in her body causes his heart to jump into his throat.

The first thing Sara felt was the cold; a cold breeze through the window causing goose-bumps to cover her skin. The second thing was pain; it felt as if every inch of her body was bruised. As she attempted to pick herself Sara found herself crippling unable to hold up her own weight. She tried her hardest to stay conscious but the drowsiness that she had only just awoken from hadn't given up on her yet.

"Sara...stay with me..." a familiar voice seemed to be saying but it was as if the sound was miles away.

Soon enough it all disappeared into silence and darkness.

Sara's eyes fluttered open only to be blinded by the overhead lights and the brightness of the white that surrounded her. White walls ran into white ceilings that over looked white floors which held up white furniture. A blanket had been pulled over in attempts to keep her warm and tucked in at the sides of the bed almost as if to pin her down.

"Sara." A familiar voice distracted her from piecing together her surroundings. Catherine appeared next to her followed by Nick. Their expressions filled with concern. Sara attempted to respond but her throat was dry and the words felt like sandpaper in her mouth. Nick poured her a glass of water and offered it to her with a sympathetic nod. They gave her a few moments before attempting to probe her about what had happened in the past nine hours.

"Sara...I'm going to have to process you...but before I start is there anything you remember...about what happened?" Catherine spoke slowly not knowing exactly how to word her question. It didn't feel right. The amount of training they had about talking to victims wasn't enough to prepare them when it came to attempting to meet the eye of a friend who had suffered an ordeal that would scar them forever. Physically it would be a week or so before all the bruising disappeared, the cuts and scratches faded but mentally there was no saying how long it would be.

"We...we were having a beer...at that place we always go to..." Sara's voice was low, the sound breaking every so often like a radio with bad signal. Catherine turned to Nick as if to signal _"this is bad"_.

"Nick can you pick up Sara's clothes and take them back to the lab, put a rush on results." Catherine instructed him hoping that her voice sounded calm. She turned back to Sara who looked up at her with tears welling up in her coffee coloured eyes. Catherine tried her best not to stare at the bruise on her jaw but she had never seen Sara like this before. The Sara Sidle she knew was not a victim; she was someone who fought until the bitter end. But in front of her was a woman that looked scared, vulnerable and helpless. She took Sara's hand in her own, gently stroking it with her thumb in attempts to comfort her.

Sara's head ached to the point she thought she was going to black out. All her memories had been smudged into uncertainty. The last nine hours seemed to disappear and reappear in her mind like clips from a movie she had seen years ago and could barely remember.

The sound of a lock clicking as Catherine opened her kit refocused Sara's attention on the present. She pulled the blanket away freeing her legs she swung them over the edge and sat facing Catherine ready to be processed as if she were evidence rather than a person.

Each flash of the camera as it snapped photographs of Sara's injuries made her jump slightly. She felt unsettled in the way the harsh light would attempt to gather every detail of her skin. After Catherine had gathered all the scrapings and samples she needed she waited patiently holding Sara's hand for the nurse.

"I...I think...an SAE kit would be a good idea Sara..." Sara simply nodded and lay back on the bed.

She closed her eyes hoping that she could drift away into an alternate reality where she went home after that beer with Catherine. But the feeling of the plastic speculum reminded her that was not the case.

A lump built up in Sara's throat as she attempted to dissect the decisions she had made, but the flashes of memories weren't enough to dismiss the cocktail of feelings that had forced themselves upon her.

Sara wanted nothing more than to be able to say that everything was going to be fine.

But the more she attempted it the harder it became.


	2. Chapter 2

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Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Whisper Something Fragile: Chapter Two **

Catherine hovered outside waiting for the nurse to appear through the opaque curtains. She couldn't stand still and ended up pacing in the hope it would ware out her anxiety. Memories of the day she woke up in a dingy motel room with no recollection of what had happened the previous night flooded her mind. She recalled the confusion that clouded every thought as she attempted to put together broken pieces of information. She thought about the fear she had felt knowing that she had lost hours of her life to complete darkness.

"Ms Willows." The nurse stood a grim look casting a shadow over her features. Catherine knew from her expression what about to be said. "She was violently assaulted...the kit confirms that she was raped..." The nurse handed Catherine the kit, the bleeping noise of nurse's pager was a cue for her to leave.

Catherine's heart sank as she stepped quietly back to Sara's side. The younger woman lay with her eyes focused on the ceiling above her tears escaping down her cheeks.

"Sara..." She started but it just didn't feel right. There weren't any words that could make that moment any less painful. It would have been wrong to everything is going to be okay. Greg emerged silently his expression matching that off a child finally figuring out that the world wasn't perfect. Catherine gave him an encouraging look that told him to come closer.

"I'm going to have to go now honey...but look Greg's here..." Catherine spoke softly attempting to get Sara's attention but it didn't work, she lay there staring blankly at the tiles above her not responded to what was happening around her. Catherine reluctantly left and Greg sat himself down at her bedside and pulled one of her ice cold hands into his own. He felt his heart in his throat as he watched her. His other hand involuntarily reached out and wiped the tears away from Sara's face. She didn't move a muscle at the contact of his skin like a rag doll waiting to be picked up Sara lay there completely still.

_This shouldn't have happened to Sara. _Catherine thought to herself as she rushed to the department issue Denali the rumblings of guilt boiling up in the pit of her stomach. _I should have stayed with her...made sure she got home last night._ Catherine thought of Sara's melancholic state while they were drinking; the booze was escapism, but instead of stopping her Catherine sat beside Sara as she went from beer to gin to whiskey. A lump built up in her throat as she drove back to the lab the last images she had of Sara sitting at the bar before she left to get home to Lindsay lingering in her mind. She thought of how easy it would have been to put Sara in a cab, how one simple decision could have changed the outcome of the last nine hours.

Catherine sat stuck behind her steering wheel in the Las Vegas Crime Lab car park she placed her head in her hands attempting to silence the overwhelming feeling of foreboding. It was a knock on the window that brought her back to the nauseating reality. She turned to see a gloomy faced Nick waiting for her. Catherine pulled herself out of the car Sara's SAE kit gripped tightly in one hand and her heavy metal kit in the other.

"How is she?" Nick asked the concern in his voice being the only thing that was obvious enough to be heard.

"Not good...she's shut herself down...not talking...not responding..." Catherine spoke with an honesty she knew would not help to make Nick feel any better.

"We're going to nail the son of a bitch that did this to her." He spoke with overt aggression his fingers curling into fists.

They team stood around the table in the layout room none of them being able to hide their mix of anger and worry.

"The SAE kit confirms that Sara was raped." Catherine spoke her eyes focused on the images of Sara's injuries that were placed out for everyone to see. "We were having drinks at Lava I left at 7 pm to take Lindsay to her piano lesson. That was the last time I saw Sara last night. A call came in at 4 am from the Excalibur Hotel's front desk reporting that one of the maids had found a body." Catherine turned to the board and drew a time line writing in the two things that they were sure of. Henry appeared at the door holding a set of results in his hands waiting for the right moment to speak up.

"I did a full tox panel, found flunitrazepam, common date rape drug, it explains Sara's amnesia." He handed Nick the print out and waited for a few moments his eyes catching a glimpse of the pictures of Sara's battered and bruised body. Henry met Nick eye and it was clear that Sara was not alright.

"Nick take Vega go to Lava find out if anyone showed a particular interest in Sara and pick up the surveillance tapes for Archie to start work on." Catherine instructed him calmly. "I'm going to get started on the evidence collected from the hotel room."

Greg sat intently watching Sara but she hadn't responded to his attempt at getting to talk. At one stage she had turned to him, her dark eyes boring holes into him making him feel inadequate and useless. But it was only for a few seconds, she soon turned away from him again losing herself in her thoughts or at least that was how it appeared to Greg. Sara's mind was in fact blank the only thing she was processing as she lay there was the empty feeling that seemed to be consuming her. Sara had never had much faith, she had never thought about souls before. She had often heard rape victims say that it had felt as if the bases of their very beings had been destroyed.

Sara felt nothing but a sense of hollow worthlessness.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you for the reviews, feedback is still awesome :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Whisper Something Fragile: Chapter Three **

Grissom and Warrick rushed into the lab their suitcases in tow. They had rushed back from a conference when Catherine had called to tell them what had happened to Sara. Catherine's voice had been in shock as she had told them what had happened and how Sara had been found.

It had taken them the flight from Phoenix for what had happened to fully sink in. They had both sat next to each other in dazes, not speaking while figuring out how they would react when they saw Sara. And what they needed to do to get the guy.

The pair found Catherine as she looked at the torn clothing had been wearing with a magnifying glass in the hope there would be some trace which would shed light on who her attacker was. It wasn't until Grissom loudly cleared his throat that Catherine looked up from her work.

"How is she?" Grissom asked the worry clear on his face.

"Not good...she wasn't talking...responding...she can't remember a thing about what happened last night...Greg's with her now, it's his day off..." Catherine explained.

"How is the investigation going?" Warrick asked eyeing the clothes that were laid out.

"Well...Mia has the SAE kit, Hodges is going through trace I collected from...Sara...Nick is at the club where she last was known to be collecting statements and CCTV tapes. I'm looking at the clothes Sara was found in that night but nothing yet..." Catherine paused when she said "Sara" because the victim wasn't a stranger, a Jane or John Doe, it was someone they knew and worked with.

"What can we do?" Grissom asked letting Catherine continue with the lead knowing that as a CSI she was fully capable of organising an investigation and as a friend she would do everything in her power to ensure whoever did this to Sara was put behind bars.

"Sounds like a long shot...but could you go to Sara's...see if there is anything there to indicate where was she last night...or if she went back there then at least we can build up our time line a bit." Catherine explained. Grissom and Warrick nodded and headed out of the door their suit cases still in tow- they decided to leave them in the locker room before going to Sara's apartment.

As they stepped out of the lab Vartann was waiting for them, squinting against the sunlight, he had a grim expression. He was one of the people that seen Sara in the unconscious state she was found in and he couldn't get the images of her bruises and scars out of his mind.

xxx

Nick and Vega walked into Lava a bar that seemed like it was intended for a younger crowd but hadn't quiet made it. They noted how strange it was seeing a place you drink in the day time, and empty. A bar tender was arranging brand new bottle of various liquors, he paused to look at them with a questioning expression.

"Nick Stokes, I'm with the Las Vegas Crime Lab." He introduced himself in what had turned into the only way he knew how.

"What can I do for you?" He asked politely now giving them his full attention. Nick handed him a picture of Sara and watched for a few moments to see if there was a reaction. There was a slight flicker of recognition over the man's face but it quickly disappeared.

"Do you remember seeing her in here last night?" The man studied the photo for a few more minutes and then handed it back to Nick.

"Yeah...she was in here with a blonde...I think her name was Sara...her friend left...but she stayed pretty late...got really hammered." He shrugged as if this was something he was used too.

"Do you remember any guys taking particular interest, did she leave with anyone?" Vega asked not letting his professionalism falter.

"A woman like that, alone, in a place like this...she was getting hit on a lot...but she stuck to the bar...it got quite busy in here I don't remember what time she left, or who she left with. Why is she okay?" He added, guessing that there must have been something wrong if they were asking him these sorts of questions. Vega and Nick shared a quick look.

"She was sexually assaulted." Vega offered. Nick clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth, his hands curled into fists. The bar tender looked shocked and apologetic but it wasn't enough for Nick, there was something about what he said that wasn't right.

"And what do you mean a woman like that?" Nick asked the anger clear in his voice.

"I mean...she's attractive...obviously single...this place isn't really known to be the best place to pick women up...and she was drinking like there was no tomorrow...the perverts...well...they saw it as a weakness...and trust me there are a lot of sad, desperate men that drink here..." The bar tender thought back to last night attempting to dredge any memories he had that might be useful. "There was this one guy...kept trying to feel her up, she twisted his arm behind his back and pinned him down...he looked pretty pissed off when she finally let go of him."

"This arsehole got a name?" Nick asked. The bar tender was a little unnerved by the hostility that was radiating from the law enforcement officers that were standing in front of him but he had no intention of getting on their bad side.

"Yeah...wait a sec." The bar tender found a small black book and opened it to a page covered in scribbled notes. "A friend of his left a name and address so that if he turned into trouble we could send him packing...Brian Fielding...he lives in on Bow Island Avenue..." Vega wrote the name down and turned to Nick as if to ask whether there was anything else he needed from the club.

"Can we get the CCTV tapes?" Even though it was a question it sounded more like an order and without resisting the bar tender went and got the tapes for them.

Vega and Nick made their way back to LVPD with a name and potentially case breaking evidence but still they felt as if they were walking on thin on ice. Nothing would make up for what had happened to Sara.

All of the team knew what rape did to victims. They had given talks to female victims of assault and seen the way they could barely focus their attention because their minds were always lingering in the dark place they had been forced into. They had seen the way women that had once been outgoing and happy would shut themselves away from the world. They knew all too well of the consequences.

And with no guarantee that Sara was going to be okay, they feared that they might have lost their friend forever.


	4. Chapter 4

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Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Whisper Something Fragile: Chapter Four **

Grissom and Warrick waited as Brass opened up the front door to Sara's apartment- a 60s building which claimed to have character. Both had been there before on various occasions- to pick Sara up for an early morning call, to give her paper work or talk over evidence- however never socially.

But this wasn't right. Going through her things without her knowledge or permission- this was not something you did to a friend. The three of them remained silent as none of them could bring themselves to verbalise all the things that were wrong with the situation.

Visiting a victim's home gave them an insight into how the person lived, their routines, things that could have made them targets. There were, however, those situations where there were no explanations to why a particular person was chosen over another. Random acts of violence. No matter how many years they had worked this job those were the cases they found hardest to digest, the convictions that simply weren't enough because each one of those cases chipped away at their little remaining faith in humanity.

Brass finally managed to push the door open revealing a small but neat flat. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary as they looked around the living room. Forensics journals were neatly piled up on the coffee table, Sara's gun and holster alongside them. The kitchen showed signs of takeout and Captain Morgan's being Sara's primary diet which in their line of work was not rare. A drink to take of the edge after a day being surrounded by dead bodies was not something they could judge her for because they'd all been there.

"Grissom..." Brass called from another room, the way his voice wavered told them that there was something very wrong. Grissom and Warrick approached Brass who was standing in front of a door that was cracked open revealing what appeared to be a bedroom. He looked at them with a grim expression. "I warn you...it's not pretty."

They stepped through the door into what appeared to be a completely different world from the rest of the flat. The almost obsessive tidiness had disappeared into chaos. The furniture was no longer in the right place, the curtains looked like they had been dragged from the rail, the content of the cupboards and drawers scattered across the floor.

"Think someone was looking for something?" Warrick thought out loud taking a look around he noted there didn't seem to be any method to the way the room had been tossed.

"Why only look in here? Why not look in the rest of place?" Grissom asked attempting to figure out where to start.

"He knew what he was looking for? Where it was?" Warrick suggested taking one look around. Grissom gave a nod out of desperation taking another slow glance around.

Grissom attempted to silence the guilty thoughts that were running through his mind as he slowly moved each object on his way to the floor. He felt responsible- he'd pushed her away. That's why she was in that bar. That's why she was drowning her sorrows. He thought of the last conversation he'd had with her- she wanted to try and have a normal, functioning relationship with him but he'd spoken about complications and boundaries. He'd treated her the way he had always done. He'd spoken to her as if she were just anyone else rather than a woman that he was truly in love with. They had tried, to hide what they had, keep what they had to the confides of his house or hers but she wanted more, she needed more and he couldn't blame her. But he just couldn't.

Grissom glanced up at Warrick who was shining the UV light on Sara's bed sheets. From the pain expression that shadowed over his features it was clear that they were not looking at their primary crime scene.

"Griss, I haven't gotten anything..." He sighed. Taking a deep breath he attempted to keep calm but he could feel anger bubbling up inside him. He attempted to imagine the state Sara was in at the moment and it only added to his need to hit something or someone. It wasn't fair. That was the one thing that always got Warrick about this job- it was never fair the sort of things that people had to live with knowing that all that they had to comfort them was the fact that the person who did it was behind bars. But what about the scars that never went away, for the people that couldn't put the things that had happened to them behind them. What about the people that had taken drastic action by themselves to make the pain just stop?

Grissom opened up a drawer in the night stand case files came into view. A part of him had expected it- Sara was always one to take her work home. It was something that had worried him when she first started working for him. But it had eventually become something he admired. He lifted one out being careful that the content did not spill out and flicked through the file. He frowned slightly as he looked through.

"Warrick...most of the file is missing..." Grissom placed it aside and lifted another one out of the drawer and found that same. "And this one...they all have one suspect...most of these are dated between 1996 and 1999."

"Think Sara was trying to reopen an old case?" Warrick peered over Grissom's shoulder at the post-it notes that Sara had stuck on the covers and the insides of the files.

To a reader they appeared to make no sense but they were sure to Sara the scribbles probably contained some of her most useful and important evidence.

xxx

"Catherine!" Mia shouted from the DNA lab as Catherine Willows walked past. She stepped inside of the lab hoping that there had been a break in the case. _The case_. _It was wrong to be referring to Sara as a case. _

"I got a hit, the semen belongs to a Mike Holloway- he was arrested for sexual assault in San Francisco, served his time...was released a week ago." Mia handed over the RAP sheet she had printed off.

"That's good...we have our suspect." Catherine turned to walk away but Mia stopped her again.

"Catherine...it was a case Sara worked...she pushed for a tougher sentence, attempted to get him on a few other unsolved rape cases...but the judge claimed there wasn't sufficient evidence..."

"You think this guy's got a grudge?" Catherine asked raising an eyebrow to which Mia simply shrugged her shoulders.

"I can't say...but...he got a five year sentence...that's a long time to think about who put you there..."


End file.
